This is a long-term multidisciplinary investigation of aging and longevity in religious isolates of Kansas and Nebraska. Two splinter communities, Alexanderwohl and Henderson, plus a third more distantly related population of Meridian, have been studied because of their long-term genealogical depth, cultural cohesiveness and homogeneity and excellent historical documentation. These Mennonite communities resulted from the fission of a congregation in Russia during their transplantation to the United States in 1874. The primary goal of this study is to investigate the interaction of genetic and environmental factors which affect aging and longevity. Genetic data, physiological, demographic, anthropometric, medical, biochemical and sensory data have been collected for 1300 subjects. Socio-cultural, psychological, nutritional information has been compiled for smaller samples. While the first two years of this project were concerned with data collection, the third year will be entirely devoted to data analysis, interpretation and write-up. The socio-cultural, psychological, nutritional and demographic data will be used to derive environmental indices. Their effects upon differential biological aging and longevity will be estimated by path analytical models.